


Time

by persephine



Series: Infinite [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 18:20:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18580003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephine/pseuds/persephine
Summary: Logical conclusions for illogical things.





	Time

“How does it feel?”

 

Makoto twirled the straw to her iced latte clockwise, and then one revolution counterclockwise as she thought about her answer. 

 

“Doesn’t feel like anything,” she finally said with a sigh.

 

“I usually start to feel it a few months in,” Sae agreed with a nod, “But that’s because I’m so busy all the time to even think about it. Don’t end up like me.”

 

“Aren’t I already? I don’t know what it feels like to turn a year older as is,” Makoto pointed out, dipping her head to suck out of the straw. 

 

“I said  _ don’t _ end up like me. There’s still time to change that perspective of yours,” Sae countered, “Age catches up to you in other ways. I’ve seen it in my coworkers when they have a child. Others go drinking like it’s part of their routine after work every night.”

 

“I don’t have something like that. Work, maybe,” Makoto thought aloud, reaching to stroke her chin.

 

“What about Akechi?” 

 

Makoto looked up at Sae, eyes seeking hers for the answer to her own question.

 

\------

 

Time seemed to slow down when Makoto became involved with Akechi. Whatever tactics were at play, she had hardly noticed it. Perhaps, that was the moment where time slowed to a halt for her. 

 

It started with a glance in cram school. There’s ought to be some phenomenon where you become aware of someone’s existence and begin to see them everywhere. Makoto was aware of this phenomenon, but logically speaking, you simply become more aware of something once you become familiar with it. Naturally, she couldn’t get him out of her head, and she spared very little room in her brain for  _ distractions. _

 

She took the leap in college. In just the right place and the right time, Makoto wondered if she could call it fate that Akechi had leaned down from the perfect height and perfect angle under a streetlamp by the library where she could see his features fully illuminated. It was the first time she had recognized him as someone other than a classmate, or the boy from cram school. When his lips touched hers that night she waited to catch the bus back to her dorm, whatever logical conclusion she could use to indicate why he might have kissed her was not logical at all. In that moment, she traced back in time where the telltale signs should have told her that he liked her, but there were none. He kissed her to kiss her then, she thought. Nothing stopped her from kissing him to kiss him, and so she did.

 

Needless to say, she didn’t return to her dorm that night. Whatever logical conclusion she could come up with for that did not exist either. Could she explain the moment she felt like she could reach for his hand without thinking? Or what about the time where she felt like it was just right to sit across from him at the cafe while they studied and not next to him where she might avoid his mahogany gaze. Maybe there was a perfectly good, and sound reasoning for why he introduced her so brazenly to others as his girlfriend, and squeezed her hand as he did so.

 

Whatever those reasons were, whatever conclusions Makoto would jump to - they just didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense the moment she met Akechi. Couldn’t she say that scientifically speaking, all of the chemicals in her body interacted in such a way whenever she was around him, but not with anyone else? But what would be the reasoning for that? What about the times where he leaned in so close that not even a tracker planted on the lapel of her coat could not pick up what he said to her - for the words that he expressed were not vocalized nor audible, but motioned by the movement of his lips against hers. Could she ever reason herself out of the first time Akechi told her he loved her? 

 

No. There was no logical conclusion. Age caught up to her, and it might have been because of Akechi. Perhaps there was logic in that, but it was a good feeling. The new year seemed to have just come and gone, and she didn’t even have the time to think before tearing off the calendar paper to turn to the next month, and the next month after that. It was a good feeling, but maybe she should slow down.

 

Makoto counted along with the elevator as it climbed up to the second highest floor. And just like that, 22 seconds were gone. She counted the time it took to walk around the maze of rooms until she got to her apartment - another 15 seconds. And by the time she had pulled out her keys and wrestled with the door knob to open, a minute had passed. Time really didn’t stop for anyone, and she wasn’t any different. 

 

Time stood still again when she stood at the entrance, shoes still on, and quickly forgotten about. A moment to digest what had appeared in front of her, and her hands quickly flew to her mouth in awe and surprise. Time stopped for her all of a sudden when Akechi smiled at her reaction. Candles - clearly a fire hazard - decorated the living room. She clearly recognized the shape of their dining table even with the white table cloth over it - he couldn’t fool her even if he had rearranged the apartment for that evening. She could hardly focus on the fact that he had  _ dressed _ for the occasion like it was a black tie affair when her eyes drew to the centerpiece at the table. Makoto’s jaw dropped slightly when she realized a vase full of cherry blossoms decorated the table. 

 

It just wasn’t possible, really. Akechi had either picked them illegally and harnessed them from their branches, or they were fake. Makoto walked forward, kicking off her shoes, to look at the flowers. 

 

“Where did you get these?” she asked straight to the point.

 

“Happy birthday, Makoto,” he said with a half laugh, sliding his arm around hers as she leaned forward to look at the flowers. 

 

They were real. The flowers were real. She had felt them. The candles flickered at the table, the smell of the food from the kitchen wafted into the room now, waiting to be plated. But the flowers were real, and Akechi had obtained them for her. He pulled her limp hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles before he went to remove her blazer. 

 

“Is it so surprising?” he asked with a chuckle, “You haven’t stopped staring at them. You haven’t even seen your actual present yet.”

 

“There’s more?” she scoffed, “Akechi, these are cherry blossoms!”

 

“... Yes? And I asked, is it so surprising?”

 

“It is,” she said trailing off, “They’re beautiful and… you couldn’t have just bought them. Did you cut them yourself?” 

 

“Accusing a detective of being a thief now? If you must know, it’s a secret,” he said with a smile, “Are you going to have dinner with me?”

 

“Isn’t it my birthday?” she asked with a raised brow, “I want to know the secret.”

 

He smiled at her widely, as if he was hoping that she would ask. Under the dim candle-lit room, Makoto could feel her heart pounding when she felt the aura from the first night he had kissed her. He leaned forward now, lips hovering hers for a moment before she felt them softly press against her.

 

“Secret,” he said against her lips, smile widening again.

 

She frowned when he pulled her towards his body after repeating it, and then his fingers found the top button of her dress shirt. 

 

“Have dinner with me,” he told her quietly, “I might entertain you with an answer afterwards.”

 

He nearly laughed when her body language changed, and she no longer needed him to usher her to her seat at the other side of the table. The rest of dinner, she was obedient. Whenever he caught her staring at the flowers in awe, he’d bring her attention back to him with flowery doting or words of affection. It was the only thing that would snap her out of her daze and embarrass her. Dinner went like this for some time before she wiped her lips and brought up the question again.

 

“Do you have an answer for me?” she asked expectantly, a small smile gracing her lips.

 

“Still goal-oriented even with wine, hm?” he teased, “Yes, I do.”

 

She adjusted in her seat before leaning forward to hear his answer. Akechi took his time with his answer, swirling the white wine in his glass clockwise and then one revolution counterclockwise. Makoto’s eyes widened for a second, wondering if he learned that from her or if she learned that from him. Regardless, they had clearly rubbed off on each other in some way where small ticks like this slipped into their habitual patterns. 

 

“Has anyone told you how lovely you are when you’re leaning in like that?” he mused slowly, “Your lips part ever so slightly like you want to say something, but you won’t. Your eyes bat just a little faster than usual and-”

 

“Goro!” 

 

He chuckled lowly to himself.

 

“Very well,” he said with a loving sigh, “I grew them.”

 

“... Where?” 

 

“Secret-”

 

“We don’t even have a balcony,” she said, brows knitted as she contemplated the possibilities.

 

“I didn’t say I grew them here,” he smirked.

 

“... You grew them at work? Can you really grow them when the city planted them around the-”

 

“Makoto,” he said, stopping her short, “I love you.”

 

She flushed at the sudden statement. Her body responded in kind, clamming up ever so slightly as she fell back into her seat. 

 

“Has anyone told you how lovely you are when you’re embarrassed?” he said lowly, “Your cheeks flush like when I make you-”

 

“Goro!” she cried softly, “Stop avoiding the question!” 

 

“Is it so surprising that I went through lengths to rent out a plot of land for a few months to grow them?” 

 

“... Goro!”

 

\------

 

Makoto averted her gaze away from Sae for a moment when a cherry blossom fell from the tree above them. She hadn’t even noticed that there were so many of them lined outside of the cafe. One spun in the air before falling gently onto the table. Her eyes watched another fall quickly to the floor before it took its course along with the wind. Time touched all things, and she was just one of those many things. But when she was with Akechi, it seemed like time slowed to a halt. An eternity might have passed, but she wouldn’t have even noticed. 

 

“Well?” Sae asked with a smile, “It’s Akechi, isn’t it?”

 

Makoto sighed to herself, thinking about it some more. If she could live in a space where time did not exist, she would want that to be with Akechi. In a vacuum where nothing could touch them - where time couldn’t touch them - Makoto knew Akechi was the only one who could make such an illogical thing a possibility. It wasn’t something she could reason out of -  and she didn’t want to. 

 

“Yes,” Makoto admitted with a small smile, eyes tracing the branches where the cherry blossoms grew. 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Makoto! I hope everyone celebrated her special day in some way.


End file.
